Preview — Compact Farms
by Josh Volk

Small is beautiful, and these 15 real farm plans show that small-scale farmers can have big-time success. Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area’s water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficienSmall is beautiful, and these 15 real farm plans show that small-scale farmers can have big-time success. Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area’s water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing effort. Profiles of well-known farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier show that farming on a small scale in any region, in both urban and rural settings, can provide enough income to turn the endeavor from hobby to career. These real-life plans and down-and-dirty advice will equip you with everything you need to actually realize your farm dreams....more

Community Reviews

Compact Farms has a lot to offer anyone interested in starting or modifying a small farm. With pictures and descriptions of tiny, small, and medium farms from all across America (and one Canadian farm), the variety of information is stupendous. The author goes in depth for each farm; describing the crops, methods, equipment, fertilizers, pest control, harvesting, and what each farm does with their harvest. It is amazing! Every type of farm, every region, every method is represented, so that readCompact Farms has a lot to offer anyone interested in starting or modifying a small farm. With pictures and descriptions of tiny, small, and medium farms from all across America (and one Canadian farm), the variety of information is stupendous. The author goes in depth for each farm; describing the crops, methods, equipment, fertilizers, pest control, harvesting, and what each farm does with their harvest. It is amazing! Every type of farm, every region, every method is represented, so that readers can decide what will work best for their farm. Great pictures, great details, and great ideas make this the perfect book on compact market farms....more

Compact Farms takes us through 15 small farms across the United States, with one of them being his own. This books preface gives an idea of what the author wants us to get out of the book and explain John Jeavon's ideas for small, less than 5 acre, farms should look like. Part One asks and, for the most part, answers the question, "Why Farm Small?" Part Two gives us the detailed look at the 15 profiled farms. For each of these farms, the reader is given a look into what the farm does, including:Compact Farms takes us through 15 small farms across the United States, with one of them being his own. This books preface gives an idea of what the author wants us to get out of the book and explain John Jeavon's ideas for small, less than 5 acre, farms should look like. Part One asks and, for the most part, answers the question, "Why Farm Small?" Part Two gives us the detailed look at the 15 profiled farms. For each of these farms, the reader is given a look into what the farm does, including: a back story for the farm, map, the basic things they do on the farm, how and who they sell their produce, harvest windows, labor, water, fertility, tools and infrastructure, crop care, harvesting, and post-harvesting events. Part Three goes into starting your own compact, small farm. Giving ideas on what you can do, but also, asking, "What do you want to do?"

Thank you Storey Publishing, LLC and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book, which made this honest review possible....more

Beautiful photos of different successful market garden farms. Many different types, great photographs, loved that they included Harvest succession plans (abbreviated), and useful tools and tips. This is very helpful to me running my school garden to get ideas that will help me improve my productivity.Highly recommend for anyone doing small scale farming.

Not only how to make living with farming, but how to enjoy living with a sense of purpose. There is no one right way to approach it, but some strategies work better than others. Great way to learn from the experiences of others, along with terrific resources.

I would have actually preferred more technical detail on how each farm laid out washing and packing stations as well as road access for maximum efficiency, but at least all the pictures are nice and the crop planning charts are useful and concise.

I wanted to get the nitty gritty of farm plans (financials, regulations, etc.) While this book does not provide these details, it nevertheless inspired me by showing a diverse set of small farms across climate, urban/rurual, and marketing plans.

Excellent book, very inspiring, real people, real farms, real successes! I especially enjoyed the farm layouts ("maps"), and the financials aspects of each farm. The stories of each farm were very inspiring.

Excellent book except for the fact that I couldn't enlarge any of the pics, maps, etc. on my kindle app. on my laptop for some reason. That was very disappointing since I wanted to see a detail of the farms layouts. For those wanting to start a small farm this is a good place to start!